Watchmaker Fossil Group Acquires Misfit for $260 Million

The wearables trend isn’t going away anytime soon, folks. The Wall Street Journal reports Fossil has agreed to purchase wearable fitness tracker Misfit for $260 million:

Watchmaker Fossil Group Inc. has agreed to acquire startup Misfit Inc., a maker of wearable fitness trackers, for $260 million.

Sonny Vu, chief executive and co-founder of Misfit, will become CTO of connected devices for Fossil when the transaction closes. On the acquisition, Vu said “If you don’t have a brand it is hard to be legit in this space.”

Fossil Group, which is based in Texas, has brands Fossil and Skagen, while it licenses others such as Michael Kors, Diesel and DKNY. Annually, Fossil sells 50 million watches and accessories in 150 countries.

Fossil was impressed by Misfit’s battery life innovation, one part of the deciding factor for the deal (battery life can be impressive when there’s no display to power!). The company expects to incorporate fitness tracking into its watches, as soon as 2016, while also producing Misfit’s product lines.

Misfit was founded in 2011 and had raised roughly $63 million from various high profile venture capital partners, which definitely got paid today.

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